Your organic farm in the Eastern Townships
When one says ‘market farmer,’ one immediately thinks of soil, tractors and vegetable-growing know-how –but one forgets that market farmers are travelling farmers, and yours truly certainly travels quite a bit. Yearly, as we take to Quebec’s magnificently (!) surfaced roads again in June, we re-acquaint ourselves with every bump, crack, swell and twist, and develop a very…
Week 12 of 23, almost mid-season already,so I must seize this opportunity to mention a couple of things that will soon be upon us. First, our potluck dinner.It will be on October 10, Thanksgiving Monday. The concept is simple : you will be asked to confirm your participation by email; to bring a dish of your…
Have you noticed them lately?The first cool nights of August,an infallible sign that summer has reached its point of inflection, an impossible-to-ignore indication that – despite the many beautiful days still to come – we are slowly but surely entering into autumn. For all the plants in our fields, the cool nights are an open…
In vegetable farming, rain days or days after are so many opportunitiesto catch up on all the to-do items left undone, precisely unless favourable or unfavourable weather leaves us no other option than actually getting them done. Today has been a case in point – i.e. a rainy night followed by an equally rainy day filled with overcast…
There was a time when news of our garlic harvest was broadcast with a drumrolland elicited applause.A sign of the times, perhaps, this year’s harvest – while still important – was sandwiched between pressing field work and more pressing still seedling transplanting. Not to worry, though: our garlic was indeed harvested over the weekend and…
“What is the difference between a québécois summer and an Algerian one?” you may ask.These days, nothing really, except perhaps a few degrees and a humidex measurement. Your vegetable farmer has gone AWOL for a short spell, just long enough for a quick visit to the Numidian country from which he hails to take care of some administrative matters and to…
There is little that remains to be said that hasn’t been said already with respect to the seasons –particularly insofar as summer is concerned, which this year is looking to be hot, moist and stifling, and filled with torrential storms to boot. The lore is that there are only two seasons in Quebec, summer and…
This week’s newsletter went out on Tuesday instead of Monday.A slight, but non-trivial, delay that can be explained by both a heavy first weekend at the markets and a forecast of imminent (and abundant) rainfall. First, we were reacquainted with the markets and our farm stands this weekend.The weather was beautiful, and the crowds surprisingly relaxed, a…
Following a few false starts, summer has finally arrived –its presence was timid at first, but has become brash and unapologetic over the past weekend. It was about time : solanaceas and cucurbits are not philosolic for philosolia’s sake. Indeed there exists a long list of vegetables that need a double dose of heat – tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and…
This week is a seasonal tipping point where we have to work twice as hardto ensure completion of the most important structuring activities before our market farm stands open July 1st. While the term structuring may sound a bit pretentious, they really are fundamental to the long-term success of our seasonal production. These include completing the setting-up of our…